I put up a link to this fun little historical naval game, and I've been thinking about writing a review, but I haven't actually played it with any kids just yet. Each month I help my wife run a gaming event for teens at the local public library, and we've been rotating through the usual games of Carcassone, Forbidden Island, That's My Fish, Apples to Apples, RISK, Rune Age, just about any game that is fun and easy to teach and play in 90 minutes. Anyway, we're expanding a bit into miniature games with Battleship Galaxies, and I really like some of the paper wargames I've found on the Junior General site, particularly this one recreating the naval battle on Lake Erie during the War of 1812 (hey, centennial opportunity here). The cool thing about this game is that the materials are free (download and print PDF to put together paper ship models and the rules are included), simple to explain the rules (the illustration almost says it all), and it's a fun "hands on" sort of game that kids can get into playing (none of those charts & tables or ship movement logs from Wooden Ships & Iron Men).
The single page of rules along with link to the PDF for printing & building the ships can be found here:
http://www.juniorgeneral.org/naval/erie/erie.htmThe Junior General site has a range of easy to play historical wargames with paper models and several naval games (I particularly like the Civil War ironclad game which involves designing your own ships with colored pencils, etc.), but I'll stick with posting about this one for now.
